136
Bethany
Chapel, West Cross
Bethany Baptist Chapel in West
Cross appears somewhat hidden, for it stands at the top of
Bethany Lane, off
Mumbles Road, rather than being in the
centre of that area.
It is near what
used to be Longfields Day Centre, where there is now private housing.
Bethany’s
original building opened nearly 60 years before
Mumbles
Baptist Church,
which opened in 1910 and stands prominently at the corner of
Newton Road near
Underhill Park.
Bethany’s
first chapel was built before the centre of Mumbles developed, and houses and
shops began to stretch up
Newton
Road.
There
used to be a Mumbles Railway station at Haroldsmoor, which was conveniently
almost opposite
Bethany Lane,
so to get to the chapel only became difficult once this was closed in 1928 when
the line was electrified.
Wales’s
first
Baptist Church had been founded in peninsular
Gower, at Ilston in 1649, by John Miles (also spelt Myles).
During the 17
th century Gower had
strong Puritan influences, through ministers like Marmaduke Matthews at
Penmaen, Ambrose Mostyn at Pennard, as well as Miles himself at Ilston, and a
leading Parliamentarian in Colonel Philip Jones of Llangyfelach.
This tradition of Reformed ministry has been
continued at
Bethany,
which was founded in 1850 by church planter John Pugh, of Wimmerfield Farm in
Killay.
He had been converted at
Penclawdd’s Mount Hermon Chapel (now a roofless ruin), which became the mother
church of Trinity Baptist in Penclawdd and of
Tirzah in Llanmorlais.
John Pugh
negotiated the lease of land at Longfields in West Cross from the Duke of
Beaufort, on which to build Bethany, which he pastored before going on to
establish Providence Chapel (now a private house) at Knelston.
The fellowship at
Bethany (in what was then
called Norton Fields) began in September 1850.
The Cambrian newspaper stated that “a monster tea party took place at
the old
castle of
Oystermouth” in aid of
funds for the chapel, and estimated that about 1,100 people participated.
The congregation soon outgrew that building,
so that meetings were held in Mumbles, at the school that used to stand in
Dunns Lane.
Rather than build on a different site, the
present Bethany Chapel was erected adjoining the original one, which became the
schoolroom, as with Trinity Presbyterian in
Glanmor Park Road or Moriah Chapel in
Loughor, among others.
It opened in
September 1867, with the Cambrian commenting, “They have converted a small and
unsightly chapel into one of the most commodious and pretty in the district, and
they now have a house of God worthy of this rapidly rising watering
place.”
A manse was acquired in
Lundy Drive in
1983, and the mortgage was paid off within a few years – a considerable
achievement when the fellowship rarely numbered more than 50 members.
The congregation has reaped benefits from
periods of long ministry – Rev. Thomas Davis ministered for 24 years until
1909, Rev. William Ham for 25 years to 1945, and current pastor Rev. Michael
Leaves for 24 years to date.
Principal
organist since 1983 has been Mr Robert Barnes, who serves as a deacon, and
updated his 2001 history of the church for the recent anniversary.
The congregation has been outward
looking, for example supporting a Morriston family engaged in mission work in
Japan,
and welcoming several Korean families when Derek Earl lectured at the Bible
College of Wales in Derwen Fawr.
The 150
th
anniversary of the present building echoed the 1850 occasion by holding a
Victorian Tea Party (though not a monster one) last November, raising funds for
the Mumbles food bank rather than for the chapel.
Bethany seeks to continue to proclaim God’s
sovereignty amid a cynical age, without diluting the message that the Puritans
proclaimed into one more acceptable to what many call a post-Christian
society.
The chapel itself may not be as
visible as some places of worship, but the influence and witness of its
congregation is certainly not hidden.
No comments:
Post a Comment